$1318 per second

Are you serious...? This is rediculous.

Exxon Mobil makes over $10 billion
No. 1 U.S. oil company earns $1,318 a second -topping forecasts - but comes in just shy of a record.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
July 27 2006: 10:09 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Profits at Exxon Mobil surged 36 percent to a near record $10.4 billion in the second quarter as surging oil prices helped the world's largest publicly traded company soundly beat Wall Street forecasts.

The company's profit - which amounts to a cool $1,318 a second - is the second biggest ever reported by a U.S. company, behind only the $10.7 billion Exxon itself earned in the fourth quarter of 2005.

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The earnings equaled $1.72 a share, topping the $1.64 a share analysts had forecast on average, according to First Call.

The $1,318 a second would buy enough gasoline, even at the current $3 a gallon average, to drive a Hummer H3 between Los Angeles and New York three times.

New York-based Exxon Mobil caught considerable flack from the general public for its record fourth quarter, which came soon after gasoline prices hit record highs.

Compounding matters, the company gave its outgoing CEO Lee Raymond a retirement package worth about $350 million around the same time.

That combination of events led to a public outcry calling for restrictions to CEO pay, and from lawmakers who wanted to institute a windfall profits tax on the oil industry or even break up some of the oil giants that merged in the 1990s.

But the industry says that oil prices fluctuate widely over time and that, in the long run, it's actually less profitable than a number of other industries.

Officials have also argued against a government-forced break up, saying oil companies need to be big to compete in a global market against foreign state-run firms, some of which are larger than Exxon Mobil.

Surging oil prices helped Exxon in the quarter, when crude prices jumped 31 percent.

Exxon said spending on exploration and production rose 8 percent in the quarter, to $4.9 billion.

That may be good news for investors, who have been concerned that high oil prices would lead to company to boost spending even further.

But it might be bad news for consumers hoping that more oil on the market would help lower gas prices.

Industry experts say that it's getting increasingly expensive for oil companies to get easily refinable crude oil out of the ground.

At the same time, high prices have led to surging demand for exploration and drilling equipment, and workers, causing the price of such services to jump roughly 15 percent a year over the last several years, industry executives and analysts say.

Then there's the geological fact that new, large, high-quality oil fields are simply getting harder to find.

Meanwhile, new production hasn't kept pace with surging demand - not only from the United States, but from China, India and other rapidly growing economies - which has driven prices up nearly fourfold, from around $20 a barrel in early 2002 to a trading high of $78.40 earlier this month on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Tensions in the Middle East and other parts of the world and speculative buying by big investment funds has also helped fuel the runup.